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In this social media error, so many things are blown out of proportion.
Headline: “Jets laughed at Vikings in the war room after making trade for No. 10 pick: ‘Free money!'”
The Jets provide a lot of behind-the-scenes highlights on their “Flight 24” docudrama series, and this includes a lot of stuff from their draft war room, every year, including this year.
So on a recent episode of the series, they showed Jets officials, like Joe Douglas, and cap guy, Dave Socie, working the phones, leading up to their trade with Minnesota, where the Jets moved down from 10 to 11, and picked up extra fourth and fifth-round picks in the process.
After Douglas told Jets coach Robert Saleh what they were doing, Saleh responded with a smile – “Free money.”
What Saleh was referring to was the Jets knew they just got extra picks in the fourth and fifth rounds, and would still be able to pick the player they were targeting at 10 – Penn State offensive tackle Olu Fashanu.
Saleh saying this, along with others smiling and laughing at what the Jets pulled off, led some to believe they were making fun of the Minnesota Vikings, for making the trade. In essence trading up one pick, to get a player, the Jets weren’t going to select – Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
Former NFL GM Michael Lombardi criticized Saleh for this.
“How they put out that draft day video of [Saleh] and Joe Douglas laughing about other people’s pick when he hasn’t made the playoffs is remarkable,” Lombardi said VSIN.
To me, Saleh did nothing wrong here.
All he did, after the team made the trade, was smile, and say, “Free money.”
He didn’t laugh, he just smiled, and spoke the truth.
The Jets traded down one pick, got two extra picks, and still selected the player they wanted. That is indeed “free money.”
If you have a problem with the comment, maybe the issue should be with including it in the documentary, not Saleh saying it.
For a coach to get excited in a war room about what looked like a great move by his GM that will help the roster, is there anything wrong with that? No?
But if you think this might insult another team, perhaps you leave it out. Who makes the final decision on what stays in, and what gets cut out, I’m not sure who that person is, but they might want to be a little more careful.
Because it’s possible it could hurt your dealings with that club in the future if they think you made fun of them.
I don’t think Saleh was making fun of anybody from the Vikings. He was just happy about what his team did.
And also keep in mind, the Vikings didn’t make the trade with the Jets to prevent the Jets from picking McCarthy, but to not allow another team to trade up to 10 to grab McCarthy.
Maybe it wouldn’t have happened, but they didn’t want to take any chances.
And if McCarthy does turn out to be a long-term answer at QB for Minnesota, trading fourth and fifth-round picks to secure his services, would have been well worth it.
But if you think including that footage could make the Vikings look bad, or perceived the wrong way, perhaps you leave it out.
May 7, 2024
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